Sex Offenders, Politicians and Legislation

For the last few days I’ve been involved in sometimes heated exchanges on a blog by City News Service which appeared February 16th on Lake Elsinore-Wildomar Patch entitled “”. 

We at SecretsofSafety.com don't believe that the introduction of this legislation will increase the protection purportedly offered by the registries.   

Emotions on this subject run high. Misinformation runs even higher. Let’s look at the proposal objectively. 

Assemblyman Paul Cook is using false statements to back up his reasoning for this additional restriction to registered sex offenders (“RSOs”). He says that “a form of identification is the most effective way for law enforcement to determine a suspect’s registration status”. We do not need RSOs to carry further identification. All Americans have to carry ID already. Law enforcement officers run a check on each person they apprehend, revealing the “registration status” of that person. 

Mr. Cook also says "Most registered sex offenders will re-offend, which means we have to take a proactive approach when dealing with the worst of the worst." That is blatantly untrue.  Please take a look at this report: http://sexoffenderissues.blogspot.com/2012/02/ct-report-finds-low-recidivism-rate.html

If it is necessary to have a publically available registry of people who are deemed to be a high-risk threat to our safety, then that registry should carry the name and details of every convicted and released criminal in the state. 

Targeting RSOs under the excuse of them posing the highest risk to the safety of our children is just wrong.  Not because they are no threat to us, but because they are not the highest risk to us.  That dubious title goes to the career criminal - but we don’t know who they are!  The more non-sexual related crimes a person has committed, the more likely they are to commit a sex crime.  They are the greater risk because there are more of them and they are more likely to commit more crimes.

You are between five and seven times more at risk of sexual assault from a person previously convicted or arrested multiple times for a non-sex related crime than you are from a registered sex offender whose first arrest and conviction was for a sex crime. 

My main concern is - we have no idea who is likely to hurt our children. You cannot look at a face and see “child abuser” written there. We know who is on the registry, what they look like and where they live. We know what they’re capable of, and how to guard our children from them. Responsibility for the safety of our children lies with their parents and those members of the community who genuinely have the welfare of children in their hearts.  That means more than just protecting children from registered sex offenders.  It means ensuring children are adequately housed, clothed, fed, educated, loved and cared for properly. 

The most dangerous place for children is in their own home. That is where children are most likely to be injured, and to suffer emotional, physical and sexual abuse - even death. 

Adults and children of both sexes abuse.  Abusers look like us, behave like us, work, eat and speak like us. 

In order to safeguard our children we all need to keep our eyes and ears open, to actually look at the children we see and the adults who accompany them. Would you recognise the signs of abuse if you saw them?

This is the land of the free, but sometimes freedom and independence are lonely, if you need someone to talk to.  Take a look around your own community.  How many of the people do you speak to at more than a superficial level?  Do you know the people your children associate with?  Do you know where your local career criminals live? 

If Mr. Cook is truly serious about protecting us, perhaps he could try to introduce legislation which would help rather than just pander to the terrorist mentalility which prevails today. Perhaps we could have a register which does protect the citizenry. 

There are many myths about sex offenders which are believed to be truths.  Please take a look at this U.S. Department of Justice site:

http://csom.org/pubs/mythsfacts.html

You will find this information on that site.  “…...12% of imprisoned violent sex offenders had a prior conviction for rape or sexual assault, while 61% had a prior felony conviction for other crimes....”

You may be surprised at the truth - which is not necessarily what people like Assemblyman Cook want you to believe.  To take that thought a little further, if our legislators are really as ill-informed and ignorant of the facts as they appear to be, perhaps we should think seriously about those we elect to represent us.